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Sunday, December 21, 2014

TDCJ deaths in custody skyrocketed after 2011 healthcare cuts

The press and advocates focused on the death penalty and even police shootings are missing the big picture about deaths of Texans at the hands of the state.

Regular readers know this blog seldom considers death-penalty topics unless a case intersects with other issues I routinely cover like innocence, forensic errors or prosecutor misconduct. By contrast, to read most MSM sources, both opinion and news, you'd think that what happens in Texas' execution chamber is the single most important life-or-death issue facing the criminal-justice system. Taking a step back from that myopic view, however, since 2005, roughly one person per day died in custody in Texas, Grits had earlier reported. Only a tiny fraction of those died from lethal injection.

Now that the year is winding down, it can be said that the state of Texas will have executed ten people in 2014, which is the lowest number since 1996, according to the Dallas Observer's Unfair Park blog. To put that number in context, 592 souls overall, including those ten who were executed, perished so far in 2014 while in custody of Texas law enforcement, either at the hands of police, in local county jails or, most frequently
(400 of them), in custody of the Texas Department of Criminal Justice. Here are the 2014 figures (see the full excel file for all agencies) so far for some of the larger local departments.

The Attorney General does not place more detailed death-in-custody reports online, a policy contrary to transparency which, IMO, the new AG should immediately change in light of local, state and national calls for police accountability. So without a lot of extra work filing open records requests, these topline data are what's available.

If one were to Google the names of the ten people executed this year you'd find numerous press accounts on each of them, in-depth habeas corpus pleadings and carefully considered findings of fact by various trial courts and (less carefully considered) vetting by Texas appellate courts, plus review through a federal appellate process which has not been shy about bench slapping Texas courts when their bloodthirsty predilections exceed their constitutional authority as interpreted by the US Supreme Court.

By contrast, most of the other 582 on the AG's 2014 death-in-custody list died relatively anonymously, perhaps with a brief notice in a local paper, perhaps not. But for the most part, nobody marched in the streets like they did after recent incidents in Ferguson and Staten Island. The press and the public treated most deaths as routine inevitabilities. Many of the episodes
at PDs are shootings or other killings in the field while taking suspects into custody; Sheriffs' numbers are more
likely to represent deaths in the county jail.

But the truly surprising data come from TDCJ, where the number of deaths in custody has skyrocketed since the Legislature dramatically cut health care staff in 2011 and attempted to shift health care costs to inmate families. Some at TDCJ were old men who died at the end of long sentences. But that doesn't explain the remarkable, recent uptick. Following the 2011 budget cuts, TDCJ witnessed more than a three-fold rise in in-custody deaths:

Deaths in Custody at TDCJ

2014: 400*

2013: 441

2012: 147

2011: 125

2010: 116

2009: 142

2008: 141

2007: 145

*Year to date

Grits can't prove it, yet, but I personally believe the increase in deaths at TDCJ resulted from inferior healthcare due to understaffing from the 2011 budget and staffing cuts. TDCJ has told the Legislature it needs a $175 million budget boost for health care in the next biennium just to meet "minimum standards," a situation exacerbated by the state's decision not to expand Medicaid under Obamacare, which would have brought up to an additional $240 million to TDCJ from the feds for prisoner hospital care.

Will anyone march in the streets because of these hundreds of likely unnecessary prisoner deaths the way they did over Michael Brown or Eric Garner? Apparently not. Will east-coast donors obsessed with the death penalty look at these data and shift their spending toward reforming the parts of the justice system which are killing the most people? Don't hold your breath. Not all deaths at the hands of the state, it would seem, are created equal.

This blog takes a utilitarian view. There are perhaps a dozen or more advocacy groups and nonprofits, big and small, and hundreds of activists statewide devoted to death-penalty abolition, a cause with which I don't even 100% agree on first principles. (I happen to believe there are people in the world who need killing.) But scarce few of those principled folk seem to care about the other 98+% of deaths in custody, especially those in prison. If you believe the state shouldn't kill, it hardly makes a difference to the deceased whether it kills via the executioner's poison, a policeman's bullet, or medical neglect by the prison system. Looking at the raw numbers, it's hard to avoid a jaundiced reaction to people chanting "the whole world is watching" at an abolitionist protest - which again, deals with ten or so executions per year - while those same individuals and all the press covering their antics largely ignore the hundreds of bodies racking up elsewhere in the system.

The data on in-custody deaths at TDCJ are dramatic enough to warrant not just review by the Texas Legislature when it convenes in 2015, but maybe even the feds. Ideally, they wouldn't wait until there are crowds of chanting protesters in the street. There needs to be an independent review of why deaths in TDCJ tripled so rapidly and, if I'm right the budget and staffing cuts are to blame, the state will have set itself up for a doozy of a Section 1983 civil rights lawsuit.

DATA NOTE: 2014 data are a running total and were accurate at
time of posting; a couple more deaths have already been added to the
list today.

The increase in deaths since 2013 is both disturbing and certainly worthy of investigation. In my five years with TDCJ the deaths I worked fell into two categories primarily - End Stage Liver Disease and heart attack. The best of health care would not have lowered the survival chances of these persons, so I would expect the investigators to keep an open mind and not prejudge the results as being tied to level of health care. Let me add, however, that offenders are entitled to a reasonable level of health care, just as any other citizen could expect. I can't help but feel that Texas is in for a hard judicial slap to the face at some point over these drastic health care cuts and the excessive heat issue.

Before you get back to Fucking Off 4:56PM, show us one blog or comment that proves that Grits is anti-cop. Since you can't, I'll be your huckleberry.

He's anti-wrong and you know it. He doesn't have the time to respond to your constant badgering but I do. If you want to take pop shots go for it and I'll be here to put you in your place. Retired and bored and waiting to die is no excuse for your conduct old man.

Budget the cause? My suggestion to ease it, is take the huge RAISE from Brad Liviston, and others that got them a year or 2 back, put it where most needed, health care , raises for the guards, ect. a mother to an inmate, carol kobus

Having family who are nurses at a TDCJ unit and having worked at one for 13 yrs, I would like to add something to the above. First and for most the aging population of offenders is going to need to be factored in, also most of the offenders I encountered were not really healthy in the first place. Also when you take in account of the food that is fed and quite frankly the mental issues. It is no wonder the death rate is up.

Medical parole and mental health reforms should be a priority for the Texas Legislature. Here are several things I've seen wrong with the current system that need to be immediately addressed:

1. Untrained staff are a factor on mental health given the fact TDCJ has over 25,000 severely handicap mentally disabled offenders. Accessing health care for the mentally ill and older offenders who lose their mental capacity will be a challenge on ADA Federal compliance since most TDCJ staff receive very little training on properly managing this challenging population.

2. Nursing staff need to be reinstated from the last round of budget cuts to insure most prison facilities have 24 hour medical care. Having cross trained correctional officers / EMT's should be looked at given the response time for EMS arrivals at mostly rural TDCJ units.

3. UTMB and TDCJ administration need to stop covering up and retaliating against staff who attempt to gain more resources!!!!! Some of Managed Care's administrators should be brought up on federal civil rights charges. I hear nurses and TDCJ staff complain constantly about the extremely high patient ratios and the lack of training.

4. Stop using TDCJ as the State's nursing home and mental health ward. With the lack of money for indigent defense many counties such as Harris County are sending the elderly and mentally disabled to TDCJ.

5. Its time for Obama's administration to stop cowarding down to the southern state's right fight and lace up the big federal boot. Criminal civil rights violations are occurring when it comes to the health and safety of disabled offenders. This population is extremely vulnerable. It's sad the United Nations Committee Against Torture met last month and made several findings against TDCJ. I bet TDCJ, UTMB, and the Texas legislature didn't even notice. The US Justice Department and Federal courts should make them notice as was hinted by the UN CAT meeting in Geneva.

6. The Texas legislature needs to modernize prison facilities to care for the elderly and mentally disable if this is going to be there new home. Replacing dangerous metal rails, sharp metal edges, and adding climate control for inmates should be a priority if the state wishes to use these facilities for these challenging populations.

7. Stop all the excuses and fix the problem. The speaker's office needs to wake up and substantially reduce the TDCJ population before the federal courts are forced too. The inmate population is too high for the state to constitutionally manage. The legislature needs to manage the population and not expect the Parole Board to.

Geez. And there I was, all prepared to send some of my hard-earned $$$ to Grits as a donation, but since, Grits, you clearly don’t value the work done by those who work against the death penalty, and you have a woefully deficient grasp of death penalty litigation, I’ll send my money elsewhere.

“In-depth habeas corpus pleadings”? In some cases, yes, and in others, shoddy, uninvestigated semblances of a habeas application that run to only a few pages, especially at the critical state habeas stage - frequently, no amount of later litigation will allow one to overcome the short comings of the initial application.

“Carefully considered findings of fact by various trial courts”? Since when? 99% of state trial courts simply sign off on the proposed findings of facts and conclusions of law prepared by prosecutors. The U.S. District Courts sometimes supply thoughtful opinions, but are largely bound by the facts as already “found” by the state trial court a/k/a the prosecutor.

“Federal appellate process”? Oh, of course, silly me - the Fifth Circuit, bastion of the constitution and protector of the rights of indigent habeas petitioners .... Or not, if you look at the # of times the Fifth Circuit has been reversed in TX death penalty cases. But the Supreme Court only takes a tiny handful of death cases each year, and many Fifth Circuit cases go uncorrected.

While the death cases are disproportionately few, they are the only cases in which the penalty is intended, by definition, to be irreversible, and where the State is deliberately killing the inmate. They also attract more attention than non-capital cases, and therefore seem (to me, as a death penalty practitioner) to reap extra-large amounts of police and prosecutorial misconduct along the way. Not to mention the reluctance of the courts to reverse such cases - a non-capital reversal is much less likely to result in bad publicity for a state court judge. Thus, the likelihood of a just outcome is probably still more remote than in a non-capital cases. And don’t talk about the “standards” for appointed counsel in death cases - they are meaningless: hang around the courthouse long enough, shmooze the judges for appointments and go to the right CLEs and almost any criminal lawyer can crawl onto the lists.

Grits - you are way off base here, and have lost my previously respect entirely.

Grits is right on target. While some of my liberal friends from the People's Republic of Austin believe the death penalty is the biggest wrong the state is committing, thousands of inmates are suffering from medical and mental health neglect. While Texas only executed 10 people this year, several hundred preventable deaths have occurred. Killing a man for hot check writing is wrong. Some of those bastards on Texas Death Row need to die but millions of dollars in legal assistance goes to these guys. It's too bad most of the legal resources used for inmate's is going towards cop killers and baby murders. There is few resources for serious civil rights violations that are occurring with the mentally disabled and elderly in Texas prisons.

I would like to see parents of inmates contact:1. Local Adult Protective Service (they say they don't have jurisdiction over prisons, it doesn't matter)2. Police Dpt (they say they don't have jurisdiction over prisons, it doesn't matter)3. Walk into the closest FBI office and make a report (they say they don't have jurisdiction over prisons, it doesn't matter)4.Write a letter (or 100) to the ADA

A few things appeared to have changed at Allred, at least for a while.5.Write a letter (or 100) to the warden. Useless to "talk to him: he may already know, he may not. Even if he knows he has to maintain neutrality and may try to protect the situation either with a cover up or by asking his officer to shape up. It may serve nothing, but it is worth a try.6. Contact the ombdusman of prisos (he is not over medical care, but it will help)7. Contact the Sunset Commission8. Contact the director of services at UBHC (or whatever)6. Go to TDCJ meetings in Austin when the award contracts to medical, discuss, or review items.

A pain-in-the-neck mother a few years back did all the above. Her letters ended up also in Europe and many activists there put pressure on TDCJ. Now, not that TDCJ lets Europe dictate anything, but is a bit of a nuisance having to respond, not respond, do damage control, or ignore everything with potential political repercussions....

NOTICE TO A COUPLE OF "NURSES" AT THE SKYVIEW UNIT (which is for the most part a decent unit):

- Stop belittling the weakest of the weak.- You have health insurance: get a therapist.- Your anger shows; others are keeping quiet but the may get tired of your abusing the inmates and upsetting other patients because of you anger issues and temper tantrums (no: it is not the patients: IT IS YOU!A few of us have noticed.)

Now, read this AGAIN if you have not done so already. It was posted above:

Medical parole and mental health reforms should be a priority for the Texas Legislature. Here are several things I've seen wrong with the current system that need to be immediately addressed:

1. Untrained staff are a factor on mental health given the fact TDCJ has over 25,000 severely handicap mentally disabled offenders. Accessing health care for the mentally ill and older offenders who lose their mental capacity will be a challenge on ADA Federal compliance since most TDCJ staff receive very little training on properly managing this challenging population.

2. Nursing staff need to be reinstated from the last round of budget cuts to insure most prison facilities have 24 hour medical care. Having cross trained correctional officers / EMT's should be looked at given the response time for EMS arrivals at mostly rural TDCJ units.

3. UTMB and TDCJ administration need to stop covering up and retaliating against staff who attempt to gain more resources!!!!! Some of Managed Care's administrators should be brought up on federal civil rights charges. I hear nurses and TDCJ staff complain constantly about the extremely high patient ratios and the lack of training.

4. Stop using TDCJ as the State's nursing home and mental health ward. With the lack of money for indigent defense many counties such as Harris County are sending the elderly and mentally disabled to TDCJ.

5. Its time for Obama's administration to stop cowarding down to the southern state's right fight and lace up the big federal boot. Criminal civil rights violations are occurring when it comes to the health and safety of disabled offenders. This population is extremely vulnerable. It's sad the United Nations Committee Against Torture met last month and made several findings against TDCJ. I bet TDCJ, UTMB, and the Texas legislature didn't even notice. The US Justice Department and Federal courts should make them notice as was hinted by the UN CAT meeting in Geneva.

6. The Texas legislature needs to modernize prison facilities to care for the elderly and mentally disable if this is going to be there new home. Replacing dangerous metal rails, sharp metal edges, and adding climate control for inmates should be a priority if the state wishes to use these facilities for these challenging populations.

7. Stop all the excuses and fix the problem. The speaker's office needs to wake up and substantially reduce the TDCJ population before the federal courts are forced too. The inmate population is too high for the state to constitutionally manage. The legislature needs to manage the population and not expect the Parole Board to.

I hope the abusers will one day burn in hell. They'' have so much company!

Many times, it is not just a question of money. A bit of self-care, pride in your job, self respect and the ability to care about others without being "week", - yes, even inmates - goes a long way.

Money will not fix grouchy and mean employees. However, if pays were higher it would be easier to replace the bad apples who make the whole system look bad.You know? Some folks do their job appropriately and well under the circumstances.I am directing this at the scmbags in the system.You know who you are.Be a better human being: if not for the patients/inmates, for YOURSELF>I should pity you, I am working at that. Right now I am processing my feelings as I have a few quite disturbing reports.

1. Aging population who often cannot even make it to pill window.2. Inadequate staff3. Heat4. Lack of appropriate medical supervision5. Food (if that's what u call it)6. Lazy employees (Not all, just some)7. A non-caring attitude.8. Looking at inmates and their families as sub-human scum.9. Blaming the inmates and their families for mental issues.10. Non even knowing what "mental illness" really is.

11. Ignorance beyond comprehension

12. PILL WINDOWS can be inmates nightmare (see scheduling)- If you miss pill window more than a couple of times, the medication is withheld for non-compliance - even in you were in bed with the flue or a bad cold, or just overslept bec/ u are feeling ill nad have no clock in your cell.(Michaels, Allread, Skiview, Stiles)

If you don't believe #10 and #11: a well meaning officer remarked: "well, if they don't look mentally ill, the are not mentally ill."A nurse told me: "there is no excuse for missing pill window. Even if they are sick they are responsible for showing up" - by the way: have u seen how long the lines are for pill window?Do you also know that some officers (don;t ask me the reason) will not open the cell dorr to let an inmate out for pill window? Now, some doors malfunction, but they will not get off their ars to open it manually. "If it don't work it ain't my problem."

I could not make this up if I wanted.

Wonder why people die?

Now, somebody's brother-in-law may get a million-dollar grant to "study" the problem..... wouldn't that be gand?

From a comment above:"Texas only executed 10 people this year.."Are you freaking NUTS?Only?I get it: we need ISIS to teach us how to mass murder a few more all at one time to avoid such horrible expense...Death penalty and mental health issues can be intertwined when you want to execute somebody with a 79 IQ (federally illegal in case you have not heard). However, they are separate issues most other times.Let's stay on topic.

If GFB is for the death penalty, I am disappointed. But then: GFB: uyou are entitled to your opinion and I appreciate the rest of the workOne does not throw away the baby with the bath water.

@3:53, I hope you'll forgive me if I remain more concerned with the other 582+ deaths, confident that the media and a legion of activists will sufficiently analyze those ten cases. If it makes me "nuts" to look at two stacks of bodies - one 58 times as tall as the other - and decide my attentions are more productively focused on the taller stack, so be it. Sometimes in life we are presented with grim choices. Personally, I think all the breathless hype pro and con about the death penalty is "nuts" and way out of proportion to capital punishment's actual role in the justice system, as evidenced by the death in custody numbers.

Otherwise, thanks for your kind words about "the rest of" my work. Tis all of a package, I'm afraid.

@5:38, you're welcome to direct your donations where you please. And somehow, I'll have to learn to grope my way forward through life without your respect. It remains to be seen, in the wake of such a devastating blow, how on earth I shall ever go on!

Thanks to 3:11 and 3:33 for suggesting causal factors for TDCJ's death spike.

@5:38 here. Well, even if you don't think the death penalty is that important - and try telling that to the people actually facing that punishment, and their families - please do some more homework on the state of post-conviction litigation in this state. For instance you might want to cast an eye over the Fifth Circuit's very recent opinion in the case of James Bigby, trashing the incompetent work of his federal habeas attorney John Stickels. http://www.ca5.uscourts.gov/opinions/unpub/13/13-70020.0.pdf So much for your contention that death row inmates enjoy a thorough appellate process.

Anonymous said... To David E:sorry, David, but u seem to have become "store blind". Please, wake up! I realize you need to survive in a difficult job, but look around, really look around.Best wishes. 12/23/2014 03:44:00 AM

I can assure you that I am wide awake to the issues of treating inmates as human beings. My comment was only meant to say that ESLD and heart attack were two of the most common causes of inmate death. Having tortured their bodies with drugs and alcohol for years before ever coming to TDCJ, it cannot be reasonably expected that even the highest quality health care is going to reverse the damage. However, I do believe that the drastic increase in numbers since 2013 can be attributed in large measure to poor heath care which is most probably due to budget cuts, and this is the point where the courts will address the issue. Hopefully, a thorough and objective investigation will reveal the numerous reasons for the sudden increase.

To:TDCJ Office of the Inspector GeneralJust before Xmas, at the Skyview Unit, an incident occurred where officer C----n (I don't want to embarrass him here) placed an un-necessary choke hold on a mentally ill inmate, almost choking him to death. No cameras, no procedures were followed..., the inmate was placed in solitary, had untreated panic attacks. To this day the inmate has received no mental health counseling after the abuse ---- check it out.If he had died due to a later panic attack, would that be listed as a "heart attack"? Panic attacks usually do not kill, they are just scary for the person experiencing them; but THEY CAN BE LETHAL on already vulnerable folks.Why are you allowing choke holds on mentally ill inmates? Why is this "officer" still there?Why nobody talks about the abuse AND NEGLECT at Skyview?On paper Skyview is great: but the "therapy" is non existent (except for the basic and not always checked stabilizing meds); the vocational rehabilitation: 45 min. per every 8 weeks or longer does not rehabilitate anyone; the mental health staff conduct "group sessions" every 6 to 8 weeks - ABSOLUTELY NO INDIVIDUAL TALK OR COGNITIVE THERAPY at all; absenteeism by staff who cover for each other is rampant; inmates isolation is used as punishment under the guise of "stabilizing" the patients; pts cannot talk about feelings or are put away (no kidding)all the caseworkers do is paperwork to show therapy and rehabilitation that never takes place. THE INMATES PACE THE FLOOR 24-7, with little or nothing to do, except tv or a movie now and then; in the meanwhile taxpayers believe this is a real "hospital" - If inmates don't die of ACUTE STRESS CAUSED BY BOREDOM, they die at the hands of ill-minded guards and abusive "nurses" who yell names as "stupid", "idiot", and other epithets if a schizophrenic inmates/patient is scared of an injection, or does nothing at all.HOW DO THEY DARE? THAT PLACE IS HELL.TALK TO THE INMATES IN PRIVATE.ANYBODY WHO COMPLAINS is deemed "dangerous" and placed in isolation. Nobody dares talk.IT'S HELL and the deliberate indifference, neglect, mismanagement, absenteeism (wardens included) cover-ups that go back years to when bodies used to disappear........ the never-present "health administrator" who administers her ass only..ALL AT TAXPAYERS' EXPENSE!the funds are misused as people are NOT rendered accountable.EVERYBODY KNOWS AND NOBODY TALKS!There are deaths there too that will be explained under "heart attack".......I am stopping or I'll get sick!Michael Chancellor (a former health professional who worked for years for tdcj) documented this at his unit and started a blog.....not a soul cared...

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